An electric car or hybrid car includes a battery that stores electric power for driving the vehicle. There is a known structure of a battery module in which a battery is cooled using a refrigeration cycle for interior air conditioning. For example, in the battery modules disclosed in PTL 1 and PTL 2, air cooled by passing through the heat exchanger of the refrigeration cycle is transmitted to the battery using a blower. In addition, in the battery module disclosed in PTL 3, a battery is disposed in a module case and a heat exchanger through which the cooling medium of the refrigeration cycle passes is provided in a module case. In particular, FIGS. 12 and 14 in PTL 3 disclose the structure in which air in the module case cooled by the heat exchanger is supplied to the battery.
As described in the above related art, there are two known structures (A) and (B) for cooling a battery using cooled air. In the structure (A), air sucked from the outside is cooled, transferred to the battery, and exhausted to the outside. In the structure (B), air in the module case accommodating the battery is cooled and circulated. When air sucked from the outside is used as in the structure (A), dust or water may also be sucked. Since a battery is a delicate electronic part, the structure (A) is not appropriate. In contrast, since the structure (B) circulates air in the module case accommodating the battery, there is not possibility of sucking dust or water. That is, when the heat exchanger for cooling air is disposed in the battery case to cool the battery as in the structure (B), there is an advantage of being able to separate the battery from dust or water coming from the outside.